Is There Anything God Can’t Forgive?
God can’t forgive a grudge I am holding against you. I have to do that. And God can’t forgive a grudge you are holding against me. You have to do that. To know God’s forgiveness, I must choose to live in it.
Tag Archive: forgiveness
The Son of Man has Power on Earth to Forgive Sins
When Jesus said that the son of man has power to forgive sins on Earth, he was referring to his humanity–and ours. God has already forgiven. Like Jesus, we have the power–and the mission–to offer forgiveness on Earth.
The Power of My Forgiveness and Unforgiveness, Revisited
My forgiveness or unforgiveness of you has real power. If I hold onto a grudge against you, or you hold onto a grudge against me, it binds both of us, limits the Body of Christ, and affects the whole world, until it is released. So we must properly deal with grudges.
Repentance Series Index
An index to the series of blog articles on the subject of repentance.
An abuse of God's image, Confession of Sin, Consequences, Desire to have our own way, Forgetting God, forgiveness and mercy, Free will, God is Love, God's Existence and Nature, God's purpose for us, God's rationality, patience, refusal to repent, Refusing to hear, Rejecting God, Repentance, self-serving worship, Sin, Sins versus sin, The Problem of Evil, To live in unity, What is sin?
Distinction Between “Sin” (Singular) and “Sins” (Plural)–Part 5–First John
The Scriptures generally draw a qualitative distinction between “sin,” in the singular, and “sins,” in the plural. “Sin” is our inward attitude of rebellion against God. “Sins” are bad actions. This post gives examples from First John which paint a picture of the complete Christian life.
Jesus came to give Israel repentance and remission, Acts 5:31
In his second trial before the Sanhedrin, Peter declared that Jesus had come to give repentance and remission of sins to Israel and to give the Holy Spirit to those who obeyed. Repentance, forgiveness and obedience to the Spirit are tied together.
Repentance and Earthly Consequences: the Consequences of David’s Sins–including Jesus
Though God forgave David his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, this sin had a traceable chain of earthly consequences which extends to the present and which includes the death of Christ on the cross.
God Rejected King Saul, But Declared King David a Man After His Own Heart. Didn’t God Get this Backwards?
God rejected King Saul, a bungler who made a few mistakes trying to do God’s will, his own way. But he accepted King David, a rapist and murderer, forgave him two unforgivable sins, promised him an eternal kingdom, called him a man after his own heart–and put him in Jesus’ lineage! Didn’t God get this backwards? NO!!
Confession and Repentance, Desire to have our own way, forgiveness and mercy, God is Love, God's Existence and Nature, God's rationality, Leaving Our First Love, Peril of Seeking Power, Refusing to hear, Rejecting God, Repentance, Repentance versus Remorse, Sin, Sins versus sin, Social control and statecraft, The Problem of Evil, Trusting sight over God's words, What is sin?
Repeated sins, repeated repentance and repeated forgiveness in Luke 17:3-4
Jesus uses unforgiveness as the prime example of a stumbling block we can place in the way of a fellow believer, bringing judgment. Therefore he warns us that we must be careful to freely forgive those who come to us expressing repentance for harm they have done to us by missing the mark of either our own, or God’s, expectations for their behavior.
Debts, debtors and paráptōmata in the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus’ associated saying on mercy towards others’ weaknesses–Matthew 6:12-15 and Mark 11:20-26
In the Lord’s Prayer and the parallel teaching about mercy, Jesus tells us that we are to ask God to release us from the consequences or resulting debts of our sins as we release others from the debts we imagine they owe us. While praying, we are to show mercy upon the flaws (paráptōmata) that led them to sin, because the Father will show us mercy in the same measure.